Michael James McCormack has created three pieces of work in response to The Bowes Museum’s collection that can be seen on flagpoles on the terrace at the front of the Museum in Barnard Castle.

Naturally, if you’re an artist tasked with responding to one of the many fine pieces inside the Bowes Museum, then it’s likely you’re going to make a bee-line for their iconic Silver Swan, one of the finest examples of 18th century automata in the world. But Michael James McCormack was also taken by two landscape paintings that were created by Josephine Bowes that depict a waterfall in Germany’s Black Forest and a rural scene in Louveciennes, in the Île de France region. He’s playfully reimagined these works with a nod to how environments result from a historical dialogue between humans and the natural world.

Michael McCormack, until 9 February 2025, Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, 

thebowesmuseum.org.uk